Dirty Dishes
by NonMetallicMetal
Summary: Sometimes it takes a bit more than just loving a person to admit it. Cloud happened to find more than one little push to finally realize what he'd known all along. CLOTI.
1. At the Bar with Friends

**Disclaimer:** Well, it is called FanFiction for a reason. So, all disclaimers apply. Final Fantasy 7 belongs to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. Hooray for them!

Please enjoy! And don't forget to review. This is my first fan fiction so I'd appreciate your input.

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"Yuffie! Get down from there," Tifa said sticking her head out from the kitchen. The ninja stood balancing herself on a stool. "You're going to break your neck."

"That's alright." Yuffie said jumping down, heir hair becoming messier by the second. "Vincent is right here to catch me…Wait where is he?" Yuffie looked around the room. "He was here a second ago. I swear he was. He and Cloud. Gods! They just slip out as easy as I can take their materia."

Cloud walked past the door and saw Yuffie's back to him as she flung her arms wildly around trying to explain to Tifa that they were sitting on the couch not too long ago. Cloud was fine, almost smiling, seeing how everything had remained so nicely like home.

"You don't think he ran away again do you?" Yuffie whispered.

"No." Cloud found his voice escaping his throat without a warning.

Tifa smiled that beautiful smile that made one feel at home, behind Yuffie as the ninja fiddled with her fingers under his strong gaze. Was he that untrustworthy? It sickened him, but Tifa trusted him. Right? Besides, he didn't feel like leaving. Not now. He wanted to spend some time with his friends, his family.

He walked back to the part of the house that was the bar. Cid and Barret were sitting down with several glasses of liquor already empty before them. And they each held another mug full of beer. Their speech was already slurred.

"I tol' ya, I dwink mow than ya." Barret said laughing.

Their cheeks were red and they kept chuckling and trying to manage a deck of cards between their already full hands. Cid was less than willing to let Barret get ahead of him. He took the mug and emptied it into his mouth, filled it again, emptied it, and filled it again.

"Ya see dat. I'm two whole da—" he hiccupped, "beers ahead."

Cloud left them arguing and dodged something Cait Sith had thrown, served as a shield for Marlene and Denzel who were playing tag, and finally reached the counter of the bar. Vincent sat there quietly with his glass of red wine. He sipped a bit of it; his cloak was open in the first buckle. Cloud sat besides him and by then, Tifa handed him a glass.

"Water please." He said quietly. Tifa grabbed a pitcher from nearby with her ivory hand and poured some. The ice clinked and the water splashed as it landed. Then, she left somewhere to do whatever it was that she did. This if anything, was plenty.

"I need a cell phone." Vincent said sitting his glass down. He looked at Cloud, his hair gently falling over his pale face.

"I need one too." Cloud said just as distantly.

Red XII was sleeping in a corner of the room, away from the hands of a Denzel, Marlene, and a hyperactive Yuffie. His stomach rose up and down with his breath. Suddenly, he got up and shook himself awake. He twisted his head around. Tifa came to him, they exchanged some verses and he left.

"We need to buy phones." Cloud said to Vincent.

He nodded and was about to speak when Yuffie came over. "Cloud tell Denzel I don't wanna be it anymore—wait. I heard something about a cell phone, so I'm getting your number right?" She stared at Vincent for a while. He took his glass, sipped it and said nothing.

Tifa's voice came sweetly out of the kitchen. "Everyone dinner's ready!" She came out of the kitchen carrying several things. As soon as he saw this, Cloud went over to the kitchen to help her. She stepped into the kitchen soon and looked at Cloud questioningly. She shook her head, the way that makes her look so cute, placed the long stray strands of dark hair behind her ear, and smiled. "You want to help?" Her smile was growing.

Cloud felt a bit anxious. Was that what it felt like to be free of worries? Able to feel happy and nervous all at the same time, just standing next to someone you cared for. He nodded a bit and she pulled him by the arm to the island in the kitchen. His heart pounded harder than when he'd fought with Sephiroth earlier. The adrenaline that rushed through his body was nothing compared to now.

She let him go and he felt the urge to just jump out and hug her, hold her really tight and tell her "Please, Tifa. Forgive me for never being there when you needed me." He dug his hands in his pockets to control the need to hold her again, to feel her soft skin.

"Cloud are you listening?"

"Yes." He said a bit too quickly.

"Then go ahead. Take these things to the table while I finish dessert."

He stood silent for a minute then shook his thoughts away. He picked up the hot food and carried it over to the table. Everyone who could sit at the dinner table; Barret and Cid were already asleep on one of the bar tables. Cloud felt so at home with everyone around him. Still, at the same time he felt awkward there, like there was something more to it.

"Did you wash your hands?" Tifa asked Denzel and Marlene as they came down from their room. They nodded and ran to the table as fast as they could. Denzel jumped at Cloud and hugged him tightly. Cloud smiled at him and ruffled his hair. Marlene went over to were Barret was whispered something in his ear and ran back. When everyone was finally seated Tifa asked for everyone to bow their heads. Amazingly, even Yuffie stood still for a second and let Tifa lead prayer.

"…And please help us to always lead a life of hope and action." She finished and as soon as her sentence finished everyone simultaneously lifted their heads. "Okay, go ahead. And remember to save some room for dessert..."

She smiled again, making his heart jump when she looked at him. "Pass the mashed potatoes!" Yuffie yelled in his ear. "Gosh Cloud, you need to listen more—and talk a bit more while you're at it. If not, you'll end up just like Vince."

Vincent lifted his gaze towards her for a second then turned to Marlene. The little girl smiled at him staring at his hair mischievously. "No." he said. Then she turned back to her food a bit sadly.

When dinner was over, Tifa sent everyone, including Barret and Cid to shower. (By then Cait Sith had left, Tifa had warned about the shower before dinner.) They were the two first ones in after Denzel and Marlene. It took each about thirty minutes just getting in the shower. But Tifa would have none of them going to sleep all dirty. By the time those two were out it was dark. Vincent took the shower next. Cloud was waiting patiently for his turn reading one of the newspapers that lay around the living room.

"Cloud, why don't you take a bath in my bathroom? I bet you're tired and would like to relax a bit." Before he could object she ran up the stairs and in a few minutes called him up.

"Cloud." It was Marlene and Denzel. They stared at him for a second and then nearly tackled him to the floor. They hugged him with their little arms and then looked at him for a long time. "You'll be here in the morning. Wont' you?" It was Denzel who spoke.

"Of course—" He began but was interrupted by Tifa who was calling him up again claiming the water would get cold.

They followed him up the stairs. Cloud felt odd as he entered Tifa's room, with Marlene and Denzel behind him. She came out of the bathroom drying her hands in a small towel. "Denzel, get Cloud's clothes and take them to the laundry room please. And Cloud. I left some towels for you and I found some of your clothing, it's setting there too. C'mon Marlene." She took the little girl's hand and walked out of the room.

"It's really nice to have you here." Denzel said almost in a whisper. "You know. I though for a while that Tifa and we wouldn't but hear from you."

"What made you think that?" Cloud said feeling ashamed.

"It was hard not to."

Cloud went into the bathroom and undressed; he put his dirty clothing in a basket and carefully stepped into the bubbly tub. Denzel came in for the clothes. "You know. I didn't like baths either. But Tifa always makes them so fun. She even got some really cool water crayons and stuff for Marlene and me once." Then he walked out of the bathroom closing the door and saying goodnight.

The hot water felt wonderful on his aching muscles. He sunk deeper into the tub feeling the scent of lavender fill his senses. For a minute he thought he'd smell like lavender for a week if he stayed in there much longer, but he was so peaceful, he just closed his eyes.

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He didn't know how much time he spent in the tub. The water was just barely warm, as compared to how the steam rose from its surface when he first got in. Cloud quickly dried himself and dressed. As he pulled the t-shirt over his head he smelt the fresh scent it had. Tifa really did take care of things so wonderfully. He stared at himself in her mirror. Was he any good for her?

There was a knock at the door of her room. Cloud rushed to it and opened it. It was Tifa. She stared at him through the door. His hair damp and free of spikes, wearing a white t-shirt and navy pajama pants. He stared back at her for a second. She had already showered. Her hair was only slightly damp but her skin was fresh. "Good, she said. I wanted to make sure you didn't fall asleep in there. You would've caught a cold if you laid in cold water for over and hour."

She went back the stairs and Cloud followed her. He was about to enter his room when he saw Cid had already taken his bed. Tifa went somewhere down to the bar and Cloud investigated around the house for a place to sleep in. Marlene and Denzel were asleep in their room. Barret didn't even make it to a bed, he just laid his head over one of the bar tables. Vincent was sleeping on the couch, it seemed he was merely sitting, but on closer inspection, his eyes were closed and he breathed deeper than usual. Yuffie was in the living room too, she had a red blanket covering her legs, at first Cloud thought it was part of Vincent's cloak, but the cloth wasn't torn. She was sleeping on the same couch about a foot away from him.

Cloud started feeling that for now, he could not stay there. There was no room for him. He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could. Tifa probably had already gone to sleep. He hadn't checked her room, because that would be awkward. Besides, he had promised to be there in the morning, not that he would spend the night here. He pulled on his boots and twisted the knob on the door.

"Where are you going? It's pretty late you know." Tifa's voice came from somewhere in the bar. It sent a jolt through Cloud's arm and he released the knob. He took his boots off again and walked to find Tifa washing the dishes. "You know Denzel and Marlene are expecting you to be here in the morning. Would it be that bad?"

"What?"

"Would it be that bad? To stay here for the night."

"No. It wouldn't," he said. "There's just no room for me to sleep." Cloud walked closer to her wanting to tell her so badly that he was sorry for always being late and always being stupid, always knowing how she felt, but not wanting to hurt her, but hurting her by ignoring her.

"Why don't you just sleep in my bed?"

Cloud looked at the floor, keeping his gaze away from her, feeling as the pink reached his face. She didn't notice him though.

"I'll sleep in the living room with Yuffie and Vincent. I have to make sure she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and tries to choke him. You know, he took all the hot water that was left, right before Yuffie went in. He tried to go in and tell her before she got in and just stared at the door for a minute and walked away. But really Cloud, go ahead and sleep in my bed. It is getting really late."

"What about you? Why are you washing dishes so late at night? You should be asleep too."

"I can't keep the bar closed tomorrow. You saw how many people wanted to come in today. I just wanted to have some fam—time with everyone. Besides, I much rather sleep late than to get up early."

Cloud looked at her for what must have been the millionth time that day. He stood besides her as she scrubbed the dishes, their shoulder's almost touching. Instinctively, he took the scrub and plate from her hands. "Here," he said, "I'll wash and you can dry."

She looked at him her eyes so beautiful Cloud was glad they were alone. (Except for Barret who was sleeping on a table nearby, but he was asleep after all.) She smiled again and cloud gave her a nervous glance before turning back to scrubbing the dirty dishes. She took the space just besides him and said "thank you" in the voice more enchanting that Cloud ever heard.

They stood there washing all the dishes, whispering of the great times they had in the past. The clock ran so fast then and the dishes were cleaned just as fast. Cloud felt sad when he grabbed the last skillet from the sink and handed it to Tifa, just slightly touching her hands. He found it interesting that hands that gentle could be so strong.

"Hey Cloud."

"Yes."

"You better get to bed."

"You too."

She took a few blankets from a closet and went to the living room to sleep in the recliner. Cloud made his way up the stairs and to Tifa's room. He stared at the door again for a few seconds then twisted the knob and entered her room. He walked to her bed and lifted the plum colored blankets. He got in and threw the blankets over his shoulders. Cloud snuggled his face against the soft sheets and pillows. No. It wouldn't be that bad. And even the dirty dishes made things better.

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So there you go! My first fan fiction. Please, please with a cherry on the top, **review**. I'll appreciate your input and I'm sorry if I messed the characters or setting up, I've only seen AC, but it was so good, I just fell in love with it. Also, I had to write this in a hurry I'm taking and AP English class and it takes too much from my time, so there may be a few grammar or spelling errors. Anyway, thanks for reading. Arigato! And did I mention to review? Also, I'm not sure if to continue or leave it there.


	2. In Bed

**Disclaimer: **Here at _Fan Fiction_ we are known for having to write these little disclaimers. So therefore, all disclaimers apply, Final Fantasy VII belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and SquareEnix.

So, here we go, not much to say except that this is shorter than the first chapter. But do not worry; it sets the precedence for quite a bit of fun to come. And I'm just hoping this is fun for you to read. Also, early apology for grammar and spelling mistakes, I don't have time to proofread. (Curses for having too much homework.)

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It was so warm. Sleeping in that bed was much better than the cold floor of the church. Somehow he felt very stupid. Very, very stupid. He'd made so many mistakes and kept hurting Tifa no matter how aware of it he was. But he couldn't think about how senseless he'd been. It was so warm. So much like home. Because this was where his home was, no matter how long it had taken it to realize. His warm home.

The only thing that he could think of was that. And, the sweet scent of lavender that managed to spread everywhere in her room. So relaxing. That. And. Her. But he shouldn't. He should just not think. But he couldn't. It was amazing. He'd memorized her so well. If he had enough talent in his hands, he could draw her with his eyes closed. Her.

But what with her. She was always there. Always there for him. But he was never there for her. Not when she needed him. And that hurt. Somehow. It. Was. Just. Her.

"Cloud."

He was thinking in his dreams.

"Cloud."

He must be hearing things.

"Cloud." He must be dream—"are you awake now." And he was being shaken.

"Cloud." It was such a nice voice. "Cloud, wake up."

He was so tired.

"Cloud, please."

He had to wake up. He snapped himself out of his thoughts or dreams, wherever it was his mind was. He slid the blankets off of his body and swung his legs to the edge. And before him was Tifa. Looking straight at him and now even holding his shoulders. It took his eyes a while to adjust. But they quickly identified her eyes, so close. He could even feel her breath. She squeezed his shoulders a bit tighter and bit her lip a little.

"Cloud." Her voice whispered.

And he blushed.

All that could escape his throat was a recognizing "hmm?" Was he ever glad it was dark. His face felt so red he feared it resembled a tomato.

"Cloud." Such a pretty voice. "Denzel and Marlene are missing." So not good.

"What?"

"I told, you. Denzel and Marlene are missing."

"Explain a little."

"Well, Yuffie started snoring. I bet it was that cold shower. So I decided to not worry if she hurt Vincent or not because quite truthfully I'd much rather sleep. And so I went to check on Denzel and Marlene and ask if I could sleep in one of their beds. But I looked in their room and they weren't there."

"We have to go and find them."

"Yes Cloud! That's why I've been trying to wake you up for."

"For what?" A child spoke.

"It must be one of those grown-up things." The other responded with a voice a bit deeper.

"What kind of things?" Marlene said.

"I dunno. The kind of things grown-ups do at night when they're together."

But before they could go any further Tifa had them both tightly. "Oh! Thank goodness. You had me so worried I looked everywhere in the house for you but I couldn't find you. What were you thinking worrying me like that?"

"Relax, Tifa." Denzel said, "We got up 'because Marlene had a nightmare—"

"Did not! It was you who couldn't sleep."

"Na, ha. It was you."

"No. It was you."

"So?" Cloud interrupted.

"Like I was saying," Denzel continued and Marlene stuck her tongue out at him. "We didn't want to bother you because you never seem to sleep."

"So we decided to bother Cloud, but he wasn't in his bed. Or anywhere we could find him."

"So we figured maybe he'd gone out and we checked the garage for his bike."

"And it was there. So we were really confused."

"So then we heard you come up the stairs. And Marlene said we should follow Tifa. So we did."

"And now we're here telling you how we got here."

They both heaved a bit as if their story was long and wearisome. The room was quiet. So quiet, even their breathing seemed to banish. Cloud looked at everyone's faces. Marlene and Denzel had a bit of guilt in their eyes. Tifa's expression was unreadable.

"You had a bad dream?" But neither child said anything. They shuffled their feet and looked at their hands tightly clasped in front of them. "If you had a bad dream, we can sleep together. Would you like that?"

Then they both nodded.

"We won't fit in my bed." Marlene said laughing a little.

"Neither in mine." Denzel said.

"I know let's sleep on your bed!" Marlene said jumping in the air.

"Sure." Tifa answered.

Then, they scampered onto her bed and dug deep into the covers. Tifa was first. She took the left side of her bed and covered her legs with the blankets. As Marlene jumped in Tifa grabbed her by the waist and pulled the blankets over her as she blew on her cheek. Then Denzel jumped in after turning off the light. They were all laughing now. Tifa took her pillow and gently hit him on the shoulder. Denzel acted as if he were seriously wounded until he finally managed to be wrapped in the blankets. Cloud was left standing in the middle of the room. Alone.

"What are you waiting for?" Denzel asked.

"There's plenty of room in this bed."

Cloud shifted his feet awkwardly to the bed.

"C'mon, Cloud!" Marlene said. "Let's get some sleep."

And he took his place on the right side of the bed, with Denzel next to him; and next to Denzel, Marlene; and next to Marlene, Tifa. The bed creaked a little under their weight, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. After a few seconds, Cloud's arm managed to become the pillow for Denzel and Marlene. And at his fingertips he could feel Tifa's soft hair brushing his skin, and her steady warm breath.

He was warm. The lavender filled his senses again. And he was incredibly pleased to have happiness within the reach of his hand.

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Tah Dah! There is the second chapter. (And talking about chapter; does anyone know of the FFA? Because an hour ago we had a contest and we won 1st place for chapter conducting…I'm the vice-president.) A quick little, pleasing read. **Pretty please, don't forget to review**. That's all for now. I'm hoping that that AP English class will give me a bit more time to leisurely write. AND. Hooray. Stream of consciousness.

Also, just something I thought was really funny. I had some of my friends over for Halloween and somehow, my younger sister and I managed to mention a chocobo. So after a chocobo was mentioned, you have to point out Cloud's chocobo hair. Well, we started looking through all the pointy-haired character and one said "Oh! She's ugly!" And guess who it was….Anyone? Okay, it was Aerith. (Not to be mean to anyone who likes her I just thought it was funny.) Then, the other said, "But look, she's pretty." And it was Tifa! It was entirely hilarious because neither of them care for any of this. What a shame….


	3. In Time

**Disclaimer: **Again, the site is _FanFiction_; therefore Final Fantasy VII belongs to SquareEnix and Tetsuya Nomura. Hooray for them!

I'm going to start with some sad news, out of 707 hits only 5 five have reviewed and I'm getting a bit discouraged, I'm not a quitter so the story will continue. But depending on how much input I get, I will write the story according to that. If not many are interested, then I may have to shorten the story so that I can move to something different. I'm hoping to get more reviews from those who read my story, pretty, pretty please, even if to say you have read it.

Okay, now on with the story!

Just one quick warning, there's a major change in time, you'll catch it.

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The phone rang. Cloud was still in bed sleeping. It rang again and again. Why would nobody pick it up? He lazily got up from Tifa's bed stretching out his sore arm; Denzel and Marlene were heavier than he had expected. The phone rang again.

He ran down to the phone and picked it up. "Hello." he said as he walked out to the bar area looking for everyone. There was Barret sleeping on the table.

"Cloud, this is Vincent." Wasn't he supposed to be in the living room? Cloud hurried there only to find Yuffie sleeping like a cat, all curled up, and resting her head against the sofa's arm.

"…"

"I left early this morning."

Cloud shook his head a bit. "Yeah."

"Tifa left with Marlene and Denzel to buy some groceries. They said they'd be back around nine."

"Where are you?" Cloud asked still a bit confused.

"I wanted to buy a cell phone."

"You bought one already?" Cloud was a bit shocked.

"…"

"Vincent."

"No, I'm calling from a public phone." And as Vincent said it his voice stumbled a little. "There are too many stores with too many people…And too many phones."

"Look, I need to get a cell phone too. You can't run a delivery service if you can't get a hold of the delivery boy. Right?"

"…"

"I'll go help you choose one out. Are you at the square?"

"Yes."

"I'll leave Tifa a note and head out in a bit."

Now there was something you didn't hear everyday. He ran to the kitchen and tore a sheet of paper from one of the colorful notepads lying around and took a pen from a cup full of pencils and crayons. He wrote: Tifa, I'll be out for a while. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. Will be back at around eleven. - Cloud. He took the note and posted it on the fridge, next to a drawing of his face.

He stretched his arms a bit more as he walked to the laundry room looking for his clothes. He found them nicely folded and smelling as clean as clothes ever could. Cloud dressed rapidly. He grew very hungry quickly. To his surprise, that was already taken care of. As he went into the kitchen he found a plate of food on the island besides it laid a note. Marlene had written "Good" in purple crayon, Denzel in blue "Morning," and Tifa in red "Cloud!"

Cloud smiled as he took the plate and put it in the microwave. He tapped his fingers waiting for the ever annoying 'beep' 'beep' 'beeeeep;' making sure to stop it before it had time to attack. He sat on a stool by the island eating placidly as his eyes ran over and over again through the small note. It all ended too soon. But he wasn't hungry anymore and if he didn't hurry Vincent could get tired of waiting at such a loud place and walk away. Besides, he needed a phone.

He took the keys to Fenrir and let the engine warm up a bit before he sped away. He enjoyed feeling that rush of the wind beating against his face, being able to defy the standard limit of speed most humans were afraid to reach. He loved it all, loved it as much as his family and all those little things that made him happy, like the heart shaped pancakes Marlene had convinced Tifa to make and the blueberries that Denzel insisted on adding to the batter.

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The square was just as busy as he had imagined. Still, it didn't take him long to spot Vincent. He was sitting on a bench reading a newspaper ignoring the stares of several girls. And it got worse. As Cloud pulled his bike next to the bench the some stares were added to him. And the girls switched back and forth between Vincent and Cloud.

"Let's go." Vincent said as he swiftly lifted himself from the bench and started walking to the stores. Besides him, Cloud walked rolling Fenrir besides him. Just as Vincent had said, the electronic stores were many and swarming with customers.

"You know, there's a store behind those in the corner, they make customized cell phones but sell regular ones as well."

Vincent nodded and they walked past the flashing neon lights and advertisements until they reached the store. Cloud parked Fenrir behind the store. Vincent pulled the door open and a chime welcomed them in. They walked around the five aisles looking at the merchandise they sold. Cloud was amazed to see all the different cell phones, MP3 players, game controllers, and who knows what else. He picked the one he liked the best out and walked to where Vincent was surveying a couple of slick, black cell phones.

Vincent looked at him and back at the phones. "You know, there is no one in the store but us."

"Yes. I know. They might have gone out for a while."

"It's not very safe to leave a store alone."

"No, I suppose not. But it's a relatively new store. The girl who manages it just opened it. I guess she doesn't have any experience."

Just then the door opened and a girl with dark hair and clothing stepped in. She was heaving a little. "Can I help you?" she said. "Sorry I was out, something came up and I forgot to turn the sign to closed."

"It's okay," Cloud said. "We're just looking around. I've found what I'm looking for in any case. How about you Vincent?"

Then Vincent looked at the phones again. "No."

"If you'd like I can make something especially for you." The girl said as she ran behind the counter. "It'll take just a minutes to design it. Do you have something in mind?" Vincent said nothing. "Something I can get an idea from." Then he thought about it for a minute. He pulled out his gun and held it for the girl to see for a few seconds. "WOW! That's so cool." Then she went to work. Her eyes never left the computer screen as she typed and scrolled and moved the mouse. Several times there was a grunt here and there or a disapproving remark from herself. "And print! Awesome! I did that in record time!"

Cloud and Vincent walked to where she was. She shook her head a little waiting as the printer finished the job. "Here you go." She handed the picture to Vincent. He looked at it for a while.

"When could I pick it up?" he said.

"What? You don't want to know how much it's going to be."

"I'll have to know to pay."

"Wow! I wish I had more costumers like you. Tell you what, I have everything in even some super-fast machines, give me a few minutes and I'll have it ready for you. Oh, and I'll get you a receipt right away!" Then, just as before, she submerged herself on the computer.

Cloud watched Vincent as he stared at the sheet. This better not take too long.

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"Damn I'm going to be late again. Damn it, damn it! That's the last time I visit that store, no matter how reliable it is. Damn it, damn it!" Cloud cursed in his head as he rode faster and faster on Fenrir. He hadn't even let the motor get warm before he rushed out of the square and although he worried that may mess the motor up he went even faster still.

He finally arrived to the Seventh Heaven. It seemed that no matter how many days of practice, he could never make it in time. He opened the garage door and parked Fenrir. He stopped the motor and it seemed the bike had sighed with relief. "Damn it, damn it." And although he was unsure of what was being damned he repeated it under his breath.

He ran across the house until he reached the bar. He took a black apron that was hanging from a hook, slid it over his head, and tied it almost at the same time. The bar was pretty busy. There were a few empty tables, but from what he could remember those would fill up fast. "Tifa, I'm back." He said as he walked into the kitchen."

"Hey, you made it in time. You're getting good at that. And you got your apron on already, that's good. I need to wash this dishes up pretty quick, will you help me."

Cloud stood besides Tifa and started scrubbing the dishes. Their elbows touched each other and Tifa pushed Cloud out of her territory. He did the same, until finally their elbows were at a fight. But they needed to get the dishes cleaned before the rush our came. He shoved her a bit and as she shoved him back he laced his arm around hers. There, now that gave them a little bit more of elbow room. That was the only way the chore got done. Tifa untied his apron and he hung it on a hook again.

"Did you hear anyone on your way in?" She asked.

"Not really."

"Well, some of our costumers wanted to have a bridal shower. I let them keep our living room for a while; they come here often so I figured it wouldn't hurt. So we need to check on them once in a while."

"Sure," he said. "Do you want me to check the front first?"

"Why do you ask? You know how things run around here now. I'm glad you help out so much."

"I guess I'm just used to asking things. Wait, why would someone have a bridal shower in a bar?"

"Well, it's a bridal, dash, bachelorette party. I guess." Tifa said. He put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, you forgot your cell phone this morning. But it hasn't—"

"It won't be ringing for a while." He took out a small black box from one of his pockets.

"What's that?"

"Oh, this. It's just—"

There was a sudden crash. "Oh no." she said. "I guess I better go clean that up. Could you go check on that party? I'll take care of the front."

"Sure." He put the box back into his pocket. He made his way over to the living room suddenly feeling that maybe he should have traded places with Tifa.

"Oh look!" One of the young women said. "I win! Hand over those twenty dollars Alice."

"What?!?" A blonde woman with red lipstick pointed at Cloud. "You know, you choose a lousy day to be on time."

"Excuse me?" He said. Yes, definitely not his place.

The other one answered. "Oh, she's just a bit drunk."

"But just a little!" Alice said. "Just wait Loraine. You'll have to drag me out."

"ME! No thanks. I'll have him do it instead." And she ran her fingers through her hair batting her lashes.

"Just ignore her."

"Can I help with something?" Cloud asked not at all feeling comfortable.

"You could dance for us!" Alice practically shouted. And Cloud knew she wasn't just a little drunk and that he shouldn't be there.

"Bring us two Margaritas!" A red headed woman said throwing her arm around a blonde haired one.

"No, I've told you before I don't drink. Besides, you know how Randall and I promised not to drink at all. You were there too, Mae."

"C'mon Kristi! Randall won't find out!" Cloud shifted his gaze from each of the individuals feeling awkward in doing so, but even more when they spoke to him and he tried to avoid their eyes.

xxxxxx

Somehow he managed to escape, only after serving eight margaritas, five beers, three glasses of whiskey, and another round of wine. And all thanks to Reno who needed him to make a delivery. Tifa had been the one to pick up and they spend a while talking. Finally, Cloud was able to take the phone from her hands.

"Hey! This is my phone." She whispered.

"Mine isn't working right now, remember." He talked with Reno only for a minute and headed out. "Thanks, Tifa."

"No problem. Is it gonna take a while?" She asked across the room as Cloud headed to the garage.

"Most likely."

"Alright." She sighed after hearing another crash from the bar. "Take care, okay."

"I will." He said barely audible.

"And don't speed." And as soon as she said it, Fenrir's engine roared and vanished.

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Phew! I've found out that I can never seem to be able to write a chapter as long as the first. I guess that it's just because in the first chapter you have to set the foundation or something. I hope you liked this one, I had fun writing it. (Shh, don't tell my AP English teacher that I wasn't working on her assignments.)

**Special thanks** for _Vulcan Halps_ for being the first to review, _LovingCloudStrife_ for wanting to know more, _Caelia_ for the cute comment, _Cloud and Tifa forever_ for being so interested on my CloTi story and for adding me to the author's list, and _Hegemony_ (I did a bit of research and found a translation of Tifa's Case, maybe that'll help me understand the characters a bit more).

_**Thank you for reading!**_ Sorry for not being able to proofread. Also, if there is someone who would like this translated into Spanish I can try and see if I have time to type it. **And don't forget to review, pretty please**.


	4. Under The Gutter

**Disclaimer: **_FanFiction! _Final Fantasy VII belongs to SquareEnix and Tetsuya Nomura. Yay! To their awesomeness!

Good news! Dirty Dishes has been hit 1,153! Dances with joy C'mon! Dance with me! I was SO happy when it hit 1,000 then it suddenly jumped 130 more times. Seriously, thanks a lot. : D – I'm happy my story didn't end up somewhere in the pile of unread fan fiction. Since you were the ones who made the numbers jump, give yourself a hand! I know I've been clapping for a while!

With that out of the way, on with the story!

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"Really!"

"Yep. That's exactly what happened. She just said, c'mere baby. As easy as that."

Cloud tried very hard to ignore the drunken men. He couldn't think of anything but his rotten luck. Of all the places to stop for a while, he had to choose this one, with these men, talking about those matters. He was trying really, really hard. His fists were clenched and even with his gloves, he could feel his nails digging a little against his skin. He drank from the glass, focusing on the ice clanking as he raised it to his lips and on how the bubbles fizzed against his upper lip.

But the men continued.

"Yes sir. Let me tell you. No more than that. They so easy, you can have twenty and none'll care."

"And they all of like that."

"Trust me boy, they _all_ the same." Then he ran his hand over his red hair. Cloud thought it was so red someone must have emptied a can of catsup on it and he'd been unable to wash it all out. Maybe they'd been angry at him and thrown the paste on his head. In any case, he felt like emptying a ton of the red stuff on him. Or maybe he just wanted to make him be quiet so badly. "Just visit them, they'll serve you a drink, and that's all." Or was it that he wanted to hurt him so bad that he'd accept catsup as a substitute for blood?

"Yep, I love those bar tenders." Then he laughed, his red hair moving every time he tried to breath. "Indeed, I do love, those bitches."

And that was it. Cloud was unable to control himself any longer. In one swift movement he put his glass down on the counter and was in front of the man.

"You shouldn't talk that way." He said his teeth grinding and the blood rushing through his temples.

"Why, I can talk however I want to." Then he repeated the curse word over and over.

"Please, stop." His temples were pounding now.

"Why don't you make me?" And he was down. Cloud made sure his fist made good contact with his nose. He hit harder than he wanted to, or thought he should of, sending the man halfway across the room. The man stood up wiping the blood from his face. "Why you son-of-a—" And he was down again. Cloud felt his knuckles itching with the desire to hit him again. But he controlled himself.

"Please, please stop." said the women behind the counter. The people who were eating at the diner stared at them with curious eyes.

"Damn it." He whispered. He hated having all those eyes on him. But he wanted to hit him again. And the man was about to charge on him. Damn. He swung and merely caught Cloud's cheek. "Damn it. I need to pay more attention." And he struck the man on the stomach, sending him to the floor again.

"Bitches." The man said as the blood seeped out the corners of his mouth.

"Please," kept saying the women. "STOP!" Their voices were suddenly becoming annoying.

Cloud walked to the man and grabbed him by the collar of his neck. The man looked back at him, defiant. And he spit on his face, Cloud's face was covered in red little specks and some brown tobacco stained ones. Cloud pulled the man out of the diner, wiping the spit off of his face; a few others followed them with such intense curiosity. The man struggled against his firm grip and finally forced Cloud's hands open by biting them. Cloud pushed him back and the man slid across the dusty floor like a sack full of potatoes.

He stumbled a little until he found his balance and stood. "Listen to me blondie." The man said with a smug look on his bruised, red-stained face. "It ain't my problem if one of those whores ain't paying attention to you, or you fell in love with one, or whatever your problem is. It ain't with me."

"No." Cloud said, his voice cold and alarmingly cruel. "My problem is with you. Not all of them are like that."

"Bah!" The man roared. "Boy, I've been alive just as long as you've, if not longer, and I know for a fact they all like that. Those whores never love anyone. ARE YOU LISTENING! THEY ARE ALL A BUNCH OF BIT—"

Cloud struck his face again. Would this guy never be quiet? Was he that much of an idiot? And he suddenly felt a kind of guilt. "Idiot. Then you don't know anything." Cloud said as he walked over to the man and grabbed him by the collar of the shirt again. "Nothing." He said a few inches away from his very light green eyes. They were so light they gave the man a crazed look. Cloud dropped him again and walked away, unsure if he'd won or not.

"Come back here!" The man shouted. "I'm not finished with you!"

But Cloud ignored him. He turned Fenrir's engine on and let it warm up a little. The man ran towards him flinging his arms. Cloud took the brake off and drove away, letting the man choke on the dust.

"They're not all like that." He said to himself. "And what if I am in..." It caught him a little off guard. He repeated himself several times, unable to finish his sentence for a reason unknown to him. "What if I am?" And then another thought struck him. "And what if she's not?" And he grew a bit scared and then he thought maybe he wasn't and that was why he'd never said anything and then maybe because he _was_ he didn't say anything and maybe he just didn't know what to say and maybe that was because he didn't want to lose her and maybe she didn't say anything because she didn't and even if she did and he did neither had said anything and he did or at least he thought and now he was really confused.

xxxxxxxxx

It had been a while since he had thought so hard about anything, especially that. And he'd thought about it several times, he just stopped worrying about it for a while. But now, he couldn't. His temples were pounding as the blood rushed through them. "Idiot." He said as he parked his bike in the garage. He walked into the house and heard some drunken laughter. He sighed heavily. For now, he didn't want to see anyone drunk. But the laughter came again and it roared with its feminine chimes.

"I wouldn't go anywhere near there." Denzel said. "Two of those ladies got really drunk."

"They're still here?"

"Yep."

"But the bar's closed already isn't it…And why are you still out of bed."

Denzel scratched his neck a little. "I couldn't go to sleep with those ladies laughing all the time. Besides, Tifa said I could wait for you to get back."

"Does she need help?"

"I don't know. But I'm willing to bet she wouldn't mind some." Then he grabbed his arm and hugged it a little as he led him to the living room.

"Thanks. But you know. I'm back. So you better get to bed."

"Ahh. C'mon, could I stay up a little longer."

"You've got school tomorrow, Denzel. You better get to bed."

"Okay, but tomorrow I'm not letting you sleep in a little. I'm gonna wake you up at the same time."

"That'll be fine." Cloud ruffled Denzel's hair and sent him up the stairs calling back to him reminding him to brush his teeth.

The two women were sitting on the couch with Tifa in the middle supporting them. She looked a bit frustrated, and a little entertained, and she looked very pretty, a bit tired, but pretty. And he cursed. He really hated that he couldn't focus. The women there were Kristi, the wife-to-be, and Alice, the 'just a little' over drunk woman. Their make-up was smeared and their hair was messy.

"Hey Cloud." Tifa said when she noticed him on the doorway, he nodded.

"There ya'ar!" screamed Alice and she ran to him and hugged him. "I want 'im tah marry me." Cloud blushed. "It's not fair ya're tha only one that get tah be married. I wanta marry him." And she hugged his neck. Cloud took her wrists and pulled her away a little. She grunted a little and asked. "Am I not perdy?" with a voice that sounded as she was going to cry.

Cloud was completely speechless.

"C'mon Alice." Tifa said taking her by the shoulders. "I think you need to get home now."

"It's not fair! Ya wanna keep 'im all to yerself!"

"Of course I do!" Tifa said. "Wouldn't you?"

Cloud blushed.

Why did she have so say something like that? But maybe that was the way she was used to speaking to people when they were drunk. She was smiling at Alice, it was as is she was joking. And she probably was Cloud thought. He scratched the back of his neck. Watching as Tifa sat Alice down on the couch again.

"Cloud could you come here a second?" Tifa asked as she led him out of the living room. "We need to get them home." And she looked a bit desperate. "The others left as soon as they felt they were over their limit, but these two…"

He looked at her as she stretched her neck.

"Anyway." She continued. "I tried taking Kristie but she won't leave until Alice is gone. Could you give me a hand with one of them?"

"Sure."

"Kristie is about to be married. It would be a bad idea if you showed up with her like that." She found some paper and a pen and wrote down an address. "Alice has gotten like this before. This is her address, it's not too far. Her roommate had me help her get her there a while back…"

xxxxxxxxx

Cloud drove for a while with Alice hugging his waist tightly. And he couldn't wait to finally get her to her home. When he finally arrived at the building, he didn't bother to turn his bike off. It was a bit cloudy now and he was worried if he took too long he'd be caught in the rain. He took Alice up to the ninth floor of the building and walked a long hallway until he finally found the room. She didn't seem to mind having him so close. Cloud knocked.

"Coming." A woman said. She opened the door. "Oh, no! Alice why do you keep doing this. I'm sorry if she cause trouble. I knew I should've gone to visit Tifa too. Well, I'm really sorry." She took Alice's arm and pulled her inside. Cloud helped get her to a couch. "Thank you so much, do I owe you anything?"

Cloud shook his head. "No, it's okay. Just take care of her now."

"You bet I will. I'm sorry I can't lead you out."

"It's okay, really." He was glad to have her off of him.

xxxxxxxxx

It was raining. Despite how much he'd tried to make it before it rained, the water started pouring. And to his luck, the man he'd beaten up earlier was right behind him, trying to send him into a ditch. They were racing through the empty streets. The man kept honking over and over. Cloud drove as fast as he could but he hadn't had time to put on his goggles and the rain was pouring so hard it was difficult to see. The man drove besides him and Cloud lost a bit of balance. He and his bike were sent into a muddy pit.

"Damn you!" Cloud thought as he shook the mud away from his clothes. He took Fenrir out and made sure no mud was caught on the exhaust. Cloud turned the engine on again and sped behind the man.

They continued racing, passing each other. The man pulled out a gun from somewhere and was trying to shoot him. "He really is an idiot." Cloud thought as he dodged one of the bullets. He was becoming really tired of playing this game. He overtook the truck and suddenly stopped right in front of it as it speed directly to him. The man's eyes jumped and he twisted the steering wheel, he rolled out of the road and one of his tires gave out. The metal of the bare wheel screeched against the pavement. Then another one gave and whatever contents the truck had spilled all over the road.

Cloud looked on as the man stepped out of the truck.

"COME HERE, I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!"

Some people never seemed to learn. Cloud turned around and headed home.

xxxxxxxxx

He looked at himself after he'd parked Fenrir. He was so muddy he looked like a monster. He stepped out of the garage and into the rain to get some of the dirt off. It was taking too long. He saw the water come clear out of one of the gutters. He was going to shower anyway. He stepped under it and saw as the water under his feet turned from brown to clear. Suddenly he heard laughter.

"Cloud what are you doing?" It was Tifa and she was laughing so hard she was having trouble breathing.

"Why don't I get to play in the rain?" Denzel said pointing at him.

Cloud stood frozen under the gutter, suddenly feeling very stupid.

"You want to play?" She asked.

"Yes!" Denzel said.

"Let's go then." And she ran out of the doorway and to where Cloud was, still standing under the gutter. Denzel came running after her.

They played in the rain for a while and under the gutter too. Then Denzel and Tifa hugged him as they stood with the water pouring over them. And he couldn't help but think that he really, really liked hugs.

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YAY! How about that, longer than the first chapter. (or at least I think.) I bet no one was expecting anything like this to happen? Or maybe you were? I don't know. In any case, thanks for your support. And remember I don't know how my story is going unless you _**review**_.

Again, no time to proofread. I know this one took a bit longer to update, but I've been a bit busy. I'll try to let you know what progress I make through my profile.

Thanks to _RikkuMcClowFox_, _Annie_,_ me_ (not me, but the reviewer), _Alyde_, _Toons_, _LoveIsAForceOfNature_, _Biskitty_, and _FDJ_. Thank you for reviewing!

_**Well, I suppose that's all! Thanks for reading! I'd like to hear from you!**_


	5. Out of Luck

**Disclaimer: **The site is called _FanFiction_; therefore Final Fantasy VII belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and _SquareEnix_. Hooray for them!

Thanks to everyone who's been supporting the story! And I finally got a PS2! (Dances with joy!) I just love after thanksgiving sales. XD

I guess that's all, on with the story!

XXXXXXXXXXX

"You should have seen Denzel this morning." Tifa said chuckling as she drank a freshly made cup of tea.

"I tried to get him to bed early." Cloud responded as he too drank some tea and ate his breakfast. Tifa cooked excellent.

"I know, but, I think it's okay to let him do whatever he wants sometimes. He has to learn his limits sooner or later."

Cloud nodded. Tifa smiled at him and suddenly caught sight of his cheek. There was a very small bruise; no one else would have seen it. 

"What happened to your cheek?" 

"Nothing." He said quickly, removing his gaze from her eyes and into the greenish-brown tea. Damn.

"Are you sure? It seems you have a bruise."

"Yes." He said and then he faltered a little before saying. "I bet Alice accidentally hit me when I tried to drag her to her home…or something."

"Alright." Then she got up and started getting the bar ready. Cloud blushed and sighed before returning to finish his meal.

XXXXXX

"I'm back!" Denzel yelled as he stepped into the house. "School was boring. Lunch was pretty icky. I'm doing fine in math. And language too. That guy didn't bother me much today at school. And, the teacher said there will be an open house here pretty soon. Anything else?"

Tifa looked at him and said. "How about science?"

"Oh, well…" Denzel smiled as he saw Cloud. "Hey, you're here already!"

Cloud smiled at Denzel and tried to answer but he felt Tifa's gaze on him and he knew exactly what Tifa wanted him to say. "Yeah, I'm back. But how are you doing in science?"

Denzel ran towards the table where Cloud was sitting with maps spread around, a few pencils, and many delivery sheets. "Oh, but it's so boring. Today we studied something about electrons and something about something I'd already studied with the other teacher…But really Cloud it's so boring," Denzel said with a bit of a pout in his lips.

Cloud and Tifa exchanged glances and Denzel looked at both of them then said. "Fine. I'll tell you. I made a C on a test." Tifa's eyebrows rose a little. "But, the teacher said that if I had a good science project that it really wouldn't make a difference."

"When is the project due?" Cloud asked.

"In about a month and a half. She just announced it today."

"And what are you going to do?"

"That's the hard part. I don't know."

"Think of something you like." Tifa said.

"I like a lot of things." Denzel said as he scratched his chin a little, trying to look as much of a scientist as he could. He didn't say anything after a few minutes.

"Well?" Cloud finally broke the silence.

"I don't know. Since you were the one with the idea, why don't you say something you like Tifa."

"That's easy. I love stars." As she said this, she looked at Cloud and smiled. He felt a bit of a flutter suddenly. Then he remembered a few of the things that had happened before. He loved stars too.

"Okay." Denzel said. "I like stars too, especially when you can really see them up close. The school has a telescope…But I guess they won't let me borrow it..."

"Don't worry." Cloud said. "We'll see what we can do. Right, Tifa?"

"Right." She said still smiling and still making Cloud fluttery.

XXXXXX

Cloud and Tifa were walking in the aisles of a store crowded with laptops, gaming consoles, telephones, scanners, printers, microscopes, balances, and, of course, telescopes. They were aided by a young blond man. Cloud did not like him. Not one bit. He didn't like the way he looked at Tifa or how he talked to her. But he didn't worry more about it. He knew Tifa did not care for him. It didn't take them very long to choose what they were looking for anyway. They had settled on something that wasn't too expensive, but still covered enough of the criteria. Except that it could take pictures of the stars, that had been a luxury Tifa wanted.

"Cloud, I better get back to the bar. I'm worried since Yuffie is the only one taking care of it. Last time I had to apologize to about ten customers, if not more, and I'd like to avoid that today."

"I think Vincent wasn't doing anything today. If you'd like I can call him and ask if he could go check that everything is okay?" Cloud dug inside his pocket for his phone but only found that box. "I haven't fixed my phone yet. Let's go find a public one nearby."

"That would be a good idea. I think I'll feel a little bit more at ease if Yuffie isn't there alone."

They climbed on Fenrir, with the telescope tied to the back. Cloud looked around the town trying to locate a phone but his luck seemed to betray him. He stopped at several but they were either broken or out of service. Why was it that anytime he wanted to spend some time with Tifa some difficulty always seemed to come up? He remembered a few months back, after Vincent had settled his past, Cloud tried taking her for a trip, a sort of vacation. But of course, she didn't quite trust anyone to take care of Denzel or the bar for a week, claiming that she would worry too much and not enjoy herself. He wondered now, was she just simply not wanting to go? Or maybe she didn't want to go with him to begin. He shook his thoughts out of his mind as he felt Tifa's grip around his waist. And he drove just a bit faster.

"Look, there's another one." She said. He stopped and walked to the phone. She followed him and picked up the phone….out of service. Cloud was beginning to really hate public phones. "I think it's best if I go back. Okay?"

He nodded. Yep, really hated public phones.

"Cloud, could you make one more stop before we go back? I need to make a deal with a man who sells meat."

"Sure, where is it?" 

"Just two blocks to the left after the next intersection."

When they arrived at the store, Tifa asked Cloud to come in with her saying that they could keep an eye out for the bike and telescope through the window. He held the door for her to enter, uneasy about leaving Fenrir in the middle of the street. It was a very great bike after all. But Tifa had asked him to help her, he didn't hesitate much.

"Hey! Blondie!" Cloud was shocked to hear that voice. He turned around and there before him stood the red headed, light eyed, very bruised man from before. Damn.

Tifa looked back from the man to Cloud with an expression that said. "Do you know each other?"

Cloud said nothing.

"What could I help you with beautiful?" Cloud did not like this man one bit. "You want a special service." And again Cloud's knuckles began to itch with desperation.

"Reno, told me that you're the most reliable source for fresh meat. Is that true?" She looked very business-like and her voice showed no sign of weakness.

"Yeah, I suppose I do."

Cloud stood at the back of the room with his fists inside his pockets. What was this man getting to? Tifa and the man began settling several details for the purchase. Cloud's head was suddenly spinning with confusion as the man talked friendly to him asking for a second opinion. Cloud merely shook or nodded his head.

"Well, missy. I suppose that's it." He said after the deal was settled.

"Yes." Tifa said.

"Tell me the name of the place so I can know where I'll be sending it."

"It's the Seventh Heaven. Have you heard of it?"

"I have. It's a bar isn't it? And I'm guessing she's the bartender?" He directed the last question to Cloud with a smirk on his face.

"Yes." Cloud answered dryly.

"So, blondie here is going to pick it up?"

"Hell no! I don't want to see your face." Cloud thought, but instead he grinded his teeth as he said yes. Tifa headed to the door and Cloud followed her, trying to cover her body from the malicious gaze of the man.

"You!" The man called Cloud back. Tifa was already out of the door. Cloud closed it and turned back to face the man. "I don't know why you so mad at me," he said menacing. "I see you got yourself a good whore."

"Don't you dare call her like that." Cloud said with his fists clenched.

"I guess she's not yours then." The man said chuckling. "Poor, blondie. See, I tell you they all the same."

Cloud said nothing. He tried, but couldn't. His chest was heaving heavily as the words sank into his head. No, she was not his. But you could never have someone belong to you. It was their choice if they let you share their lives. He didn't want Tifa to be his, he wanted her to share her life with him and he wanted to share his with her.

The man walked from behind the counter, limping on his left leg. "You know. I think your real problem is that you just don't get that she don't feel the same way…" his voice was mockingly consolating.

"Shut up." Then Cloud opened the door and walked out into the street as the man continued to talk. He'd lost tonight. He didn't know why, but he felt he'd simply lost.

The wind was a bit chilly out. Tifa was standing by Fenrir, her hair was swaying gently with the breeze. She had her hands around her arms as if she was cold. Cloud didn't know what to say.

"Cloud."

He grunted in response.

"Thank you."

He looked at her.

"I really don't like that guy, but I need to save money and he's the one I can make the best deal with." Cloud was mounting his bike now. Tifa was still speaking as she climbed on behind him. "Thank you." Her voice was more of a whisper now and somehow it managed to calm Cloud a bit.

He was griping the handles softly now, not clenching them as he had before. And as she took hold of his waist as he started the engine he felt wonderfully okay. He thought, "Yes, you don't belong to me…But I don't care…I just want to share—" He stopped himself from going any further. He needed to get her home so she wouldn't worry.

They rode in silence to the Seventh Heaven. When they got there Cloud helped Tifa untie the telescope from his bike. She handed him a list of things she needed.

"I'm sorry I'm making you go shopping so late at night."

"Don't worry. Besides, no one calls me when it's this late on a Friday night anymore. I'll get them as soon as I carry this inside for you." He picked up the telescope and set it inside the house.

He thought about his cell phone and ran to his room to get it. He searched for a while until he finally found it. He sat on the bed and took the box out from his pocket. He opened it and took out the content and let it sit on his palm and as it caught the dim light of the room it glinted a little. He held it between his thumb and finger against the light noticing how small and light it really was. Suddenly he heard Tifa's steps nearby and he hid it in his pocket again.

"Cloud."

"Yes!" He said a bit surprised.

She looked at him for a while and gave a sideways smile. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just. Well. I."

"You're hiding something from me aren't you?" Cloud couldn't believe she'd figured it out. He didn't really see what was wrong about what he'd bought. He'd wanted to do it for the longest time; he just had to save up enough money. And he had.

"Close your eyes." He said. "Open your palm." She did and Cloud took it from his pocket and placed it on her hand.

"Let's see," she said with a grin. "It's light, kind of cold, feels like metal or something…" she opened her eyes. "I knew it! Why hadn't you told me sooner? You know I wouldn't have minded at all."

"I just wasn't sure…"

"Cloud, you've wanted this for the longest time. I wanted to give it to you for your birthday but I guess I'll have to get you something else. It's a good purchase, this battery, I heard that you only need to charge it once a week at the most. I'm glad you bought it, your phone uses so much power you worry more about charging it than talking to us."

"Well," Cloud said as he took it from her hand. "See, this one is completely ruined." He showed her the old one he'd taken from his phone and began installing the new one. "That girl from the store, the one we bought Vincent's cell phone from, found the right size for me after I accidentally left the phone here." He clipped the back on and stood from his bed. "I guess I better get going now that you can call me if you need anything."

"Okay, don't take too long. Okay? I'll have dinner ready when you come back."

"Did Denzel see the telescope already?"

"No. I hid it from him; we'll give it to him after dinner."

"And Yuffie?"

"She's flirting with a guy. But she is paying some attention to the bar."

"See you later then." Cloud walked out of the house and headed to a supermarket to get the things on the list.

XXXXXX

"How nice," the old lady said as he led Cloud down an aisle helping him find one of the things on the list. "You don't see husbands buying things for the house anymore…I remember that when I first got married my husband always would go shopping with me…But now, it seems men don't get involved in the household as much as they did then…Oh, here it is."

Cloud was walking with a basket in his hand carrying some shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and some bubble bath. Now, he felt himself grow red as the lady grabbed the yellow box with the pearl decoration and added it to the basket. At least now he could get out of the regular-or-with-wings, light-or-heavy aisle. He wondered if Tifa knew exactly what she'd written down. Last time this happened to him she'd forgotten and accidentally sent him to purchase the things. And of course it had been much more difficult to accomplish the task. But now, she'd written exactly what she wanted down, maybe it had been a precaution. But still, Cloud found it embarrassing.

"Anything else?" the old lady said.

"No. Thank you for your help." Cloud thought she was nice, and that it was a good thing she was not someone young, because somehow that would have made things more difficult for him.

He walked to the cashier after he'd finished making sure everything he needed to buy was there. And to his luck it was a guy who was unable to control his laughter as he saw the contents of the basket. Cloud rolled his eyes at him as he took the things out and set them down. The guy was holding his lips shut tightly but it was of no help. Cloud paid and exited as quickly as he could.

XXXXXX

After dinner Tifa thanked him again for shopping and they gave Denzel the telescope. (Yuffie left right after the dessert.) He'd been so exited he made Cloud assemble it then. They took it to the roof and tried it out. Cloud stood besides Tifa as they watched Denzel look at the stars and write things down in a notebook. The stars were beautiful. Tonight you could see them very well. The sky had cleared because of the breeze earlier and Cloud thought they were just as beautiful as they could be. It was a bit cold so they went back to the house and Denzel went to bed clutching the notebook. Cloud and Tifa were left in the bar. They were washing dishes now, with their arms interlocked trying to save the fight for the most space for another day.

"Cloud."

"Yes." He answered; her voice was always so pleasant to hear.

"I'm going to buy a car."

"What?"

"I'm going to buy a car."

"Why?" Cloud asked. Did she not like to ride with him? It was the only time they had to be together, alone. Otherwise, there was usually someone else nearby or they were too busy to spend time together.

"Well, I really like Fenrir. But, sometimes I'd like for us three to go out somewhere without having to walk. Or sometimes I need to get people to their homes after they drink too much. And I know you're here very often, but sometimes I need something and you are making a delivery. I've thought about it for the longest time. I know I can pay it off. And I'm sure we'll make good use of it."

Cloud couldn't help but think it made perfect sense.

"I just wanted to run it by you; to make sure it wasn't a stupid idea."

"It sounds just fine. I don't see why not." Cloud answered regretting the idea of losing the minutes he had to spend with her whenever he drove her to different places.

"Good. Yuffie and I will go looking for one then."

After they had finished the dishes they went to bed. Cloud could not sleep, he was thinking. Lately he was thinking too much, he thought. And his thoughts drifted to the same things. One, he didn't like the red-haired man; two, he really hated him; three, he didn't want Tifa to get a car, but knew she needed to; and four; he was sure now that he really was in…lo—he really did…lo..v—he did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vuala! One more chapter! (Actually, I think this one is the longest one.) No time to proofread, sorry. And it's really cold and we don't have a heater for our computer room right now so thanks to me-the-reviewer for letting me use her laptop to type this chapter. And thanks to Toons for adding me to the author's list…I can't remember who else to thank because the laptop doesn't have internet access…(Yes, I'll have to go out to the cold to upload this.) Tell you what, I'll thank everyone again and for the next chapter I might be able to spend more time on dedications….

**Remember to review**, even if you have already done so in previous chapters, I need to know what you think about the story, individual chapters included. Okay, so press that little **review** button on the bottom of the screen! _**: D Thanks for reading!**_


	6. Under Pressure

**Disclaimer: **If you check out the title bar, you'll see Fan Fiction. With that known, Final Fantasy VII belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and _SquareEnix_. (I envy them…Don't you?)

Okay, first things first, I'm typing with gloves on because it is cold, so there might be more typos and misspellings in this chapter than the rest. You can infer by this that, indeed, I will not have time to proofread. And if you've read the summary, Dirty Dishes has over 2,000 hits. I clap to you who have been clicking the link. Thank you very much: )

And don't forget:

_**REVIEW! C'mon guys…and gals. It seems I'm getting less input from you every time I upload a new chapter.**_

Okie dokie then, on with the story!

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

Cloud loved the stars more than ever. He, Tifa, and Denzel became used to going to the roof everyday after dinner to see the glimmering stars. Tifa would watch over Cloud and Denzel for a while then return to the bar. Then, Cloud and Denzel would study the stars for a long time. Denzel was very excited all the time. Cloud couldn't contain his smile as the boy peered through the telescope, wrote in one of his notebooks, looked at a page on a book, adjusted the lens, and then looked through the telescope again. After a while, Denzel would get a bit tired and Cloud would walk him to bed and Tifa would come in to Denzel's room and always give the boy a kiss before tucking him in. When everyone in the bar was gone, Cloud and Tifa would go to the roof again and look at the stars a little longer while drinking a cup of tea. Then they'd go downstairs again and sit on the couch watching a bit of TV. After a few minutes, Tifa would say goodnight and Cloud was left watching TV alone. But of course, he felt that he never really paid attention to what was broadcasting, so after Tifa left, he would go to sleep too.

One day, Cloud did not come home for dinner. He wanted to finish as many deliveries as he could, and thanks to a storm, his schedule was two hours behind. He called home standing under a bus stop. The phone was ringing, but Cloud could barely hear it. The sound was being drowned by the rain falling on the metal structure of the bus stop, harshly and vigorously stabbing the metal but unable to pierce it. The drops bounced off, creating a cloud of rain around the stop, as if the structure was burning and the water was smoke. Tifa answered.

"I'm stuck." Cloud said.

"Where at?" Tifa said a bit worried.

"Under a bus stop." He smiled as he heard Tifa laughing on the other side of the line. He let her gain her breath again before he continued. "It's going to take a while for me to get back home."

"That's okay. I'll wait for you."

"No." Cloud said. "Don't. You need to sleep. I have a key anyway." He'd tried to convince her before that she didn't need to wait for him, but always failed. He couldn't help but wonder what she'd do if he kept insisting.

"Really, Cloud. I don't mind."

"I'll feel better if you went to bed. You don't have to wait for me."

There was silence for a second. Cloud felt his heart drop to his toes and his blood freeze.

"Tifa?"

"Cloud…don't get too wet, okay? I can hear the rain from here. And don't forget to take your boots off when you come in."

"Don't worry I'll be fine."

"I know." She said. "Alright, goodnight." Then she hung up the phone before Cloud could answer. His eyebrows flickered up. He shook his head and put the phone back in his pocket. He sat down on the bench and waited for the rain to calm down before heading out again. For a long time, the only thing he could hear was the constant pounding of the water bullets on the bus stop's metal covering.

On the way home, he tried very hard to cut as much time off of his trip. He took shortcuts that he otherwise would have avoided and sped when he could. The rain kept making things very difficult for him. Sometimes it was so hard to see that he had to seek shelter for a while before continuing.

When he finally arrived, his body was aching and his eyes could barely stay open. He trudged along to the house. He took of his boots and left them laying somewhere besides Fenrir in the garage. Cloud made his way to his room and found some clothing then he went to the bathroom and gave himself a quick shower. When he finished, he saw no one nearby and he admitted to himself that although he was trying to be quiet he actually wanted Tifa to notice he was back. Most of the time, he was expecting to hear her door open and then her voice saying, "Cloud, did things go well?" or "Cloud, is that you?" or maybe "Cloud, I'm glad you made it okay." But she hadn't woken up. And he was not going to walk to her room and wake her up to tell her he was back. He sat on the couch for a while with his face buried in his hands. Things had become even more difficult for him now.

He'd noticed how, more than before, he worried more about her. He wanted her to be with him whenever they could. He enjoyed talking to her, or just watching her. He liked to know how much she worried about him. He liked her to be waiting for him, even if he told her not to; even if tonight she wasn't, but he blamed himself for that. He liked to wash dishes with her…He became jealous, too. Even Reno managed to make him jealous. Who did he think he was? Sometimes sitting on a bar stool and talking to Tifa for an hour or more. But Cloud had more sense than to let jealousy get to him…Then, he always dreamed about her, as if seeing her everyday wasn't enough to make him happy… And his mind was so confused now that he was sure that something would snap inside of him anytime and make him do something stupid…But he couldn't think clearly anymore. He felt himself falling asleep with his face in his hands. He got up and made his way to bed. He laid down and stared at the ceiling for a second. He sighed and closed his eyes as sleep took him.

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

The sun poured in through the windows and he rolled in bed trying to sleep again. He dug his face against the pillow and shifted his body around until he was finally comfortable. He closed his eyes again and fell asleep. He felt a gentle tug on his hair, as if trying to form spikes, and he closed his eyelids shut tightly and turned in bed. He shook his head a bit and halfway expected to feel his hair being shaped again. Instead, he felt a gentle blow on his face. He opened one of his eyes up a little and saw Tifa resting her hands on the corner of the bed.

He smiled and propped himself on his elbows.

"What time is it?" He asked sleepily.

"Twelve."

"What!"

"Twelve." She stretched herself. "Mmm, I'm tired…here move over." Tifa motioned Cloud with her hand and she laid down besides him, he felt his heart beat a little faster. He was glad to be woken up by Tifa. It just made things better. But Cloud didn't want to wake up yet, so he found his comfortable spot again and closed his eyes. They laid in silence for a while until Tifa spoke, of course, Cloud was almost asleep again. "Guess what?" He grunted a response. "Marlene is coming today."

"Hmm?"

"Yeah. I know, Barrett called this morning. He said he needed to take care of something. And, well, you know that means that Marlene will be staying for more than a day."

Cloud wanted to sleep. But this was more important. He turned to face her and said. "Aren't you glad to have her back?"

"Oh, but I am!" She said sitting up and smiling. "I always introduced her as my daughter. And I had missed her. But it's not me I'm worried about. Marlene was so happy because Barrett was back and now he's going off again."

"Well, we'll just make the best out of things." Cloud said sitting up too. He'd given up on sleeping. "Besides, Denzel will be very happy to have her around."

"I know he will…That was enough rest." She got up from the bed and started walking out of his room. "If you're hungry, there's something in the kitchen…or you can go back to sleep."

Cloud sat for a while thinking. Why was she able to go to his room, but he couldn't go to hers? And he knew the answer pretty quickly so he didn't bother about it anymore. He stood up from the bed and shook off the blankets wrapped around one of his feet. He stretched his neck, back, and shoulders and went downstairs. Out of nowhere came Denzel and Cloud almost ran over him.

"Did you hear?" Denzel asked him very excitedly. Cloud was not able to answer. "Marlene is coming, isn't that great?"

"What have you been doing, you look all sweaty." Cloud said smiling as Denzel stared at his eyes, clearly very happy.

"Oh, you know how Tifa told me that before I learned any other skill I had to learn to protect myself with my own hands? I was practicing—Anyway, I'm going to shower now. See you later!" Then he ran to the bathroom.

Cloud rubbed his eyes. He'd forgotten what time it was. But seeing Denzel already so busy made him remember. He stretched a little more before deciding to go change first. After all, he didn't want to walk into the bar with his pajamas on, especially not the ones that had that chocobo looking graphic on the bottom of the pants' leg. He wondered if he really liked them, or if he just wore them because Tifa had given them to him. In any case, they were comfortable; but weren't all pajamas supposed to be that way? At least he wouldn't have to go out today. He knew that the bar was always busy on Saturday, mainly at night. So, even if he slept the morning away he could still help Tifa with the bar at night.

After he changed to his usual attire, Cloud went to get some brunch. After he finished he helped Tifa with the dishes that were left. And before he knew it, it was already nine at night. Marlene and Denzel were already upstairs 'sleeping,' but he could hear the patter of their feet running around. Barrett was gone, but Yuffie had come in to help. And he was washing dishes again besides Tifa. Cloud was the one scrubbing and he didn't lose the opportunity to blow some bubbles against her skin. But of course, she was the one rinsing and had the water, so it was only reasonable for her to splash Cloud a little.

"I'm so happy Marlene is here." Tifa said after she'd won. Cloud cleaned some water off of his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Yeah…Denzel is happy too…and so am I." Cloud said smiling. "You know, it really is nice to have her here."

"She's grown so much!"

"Have you ever thought about how they'll be when they're older?" He said imagining the millions of possibilities.

She laughed. "I bet Denzel will spike his hair." He elbowed her softly, making her laugh even more. "No really. You know you're Denzel's hero. And I bet that he'll dress in neutral, dark colors too."

"Well, I'll bet Marlene will let her hair grow even longer than it is and she'll be wearing black mini-skirts." Tifa elbowed him. "Hey! But you looked cute—" He cleared his throat.

"…You don't look that bad in boring colors either…"

Then they turned back to washing the dishes as the blush crept to their faces and their grins refused to fade.

"TIFA! Oh, by gods! Tifa, help me!"

"Yuffie?" Tifa whispered. She dried her hands and walked out to the bar. Cloud did the same, there might be some creep trying to take advantage of the ninja.

"Hey! Don't do that! You're not helping. Tifa the dishes are falling! There! No, wait! Don't do that!"

"Yuffie stop yelling," said a deep voice.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Yuffie said. Tifa and Cloud came out to the bar and found Vincent carrying some dishes from the tables Yuffie had been cleaning. He handed them back to Yuffie, just balanced enough to were they wouldn't fall again.

"I came to visit."

"I made a new dessert do you want to try it?" Tifa asked.

Vincent nodded. "Cloud?"

"Let me finish helping Tifa with the dishes, and then I'll tell you." Cloud said.

"Goodness," Yuffie said. "Are we talking in code now? Seriously guys, it's not cute unless you're a little kid. And neither of you are very little anymore—especially you Vince. Well, c'mon people. We have a bar to run!" Then she took all the dishes to the sink.

"Why is it that anytime Yuffie is here, it becomes _her_ bar?" Cloud asked.

"It's a Yuffie thing." Tifa answered.

"Hey, babe!" Oh, no. It was Reno again. Wasn't it enough with having Yuffie around? Cloud rolled his eyes then made sure that no one had seen him do it. "Nice to see you too, Cloud." Damn. Reno had seen him. "And how are you Vince?"

"Vincent." The man with red eyes specified.

"Right." Reno said. "Anyway, I came here to see to Tifa. And Yuffie too, I'm sure I heard her around. But mostly Tifa."

"So what do you need?" Tifa said. And Cloud hated the way she smiled at him. But if the same smile were directed towards him, he was sure it would be otherwise.

"I need a lot of things," the red head said. Cloud looked at him for a second then turned away. He'd better watch it.

"Cloud," Vincent said. Cloud nodded and they both walked out of the bar. They went up to Cloud's office and sat. "Do I need to close the door?" Cloud nodded. "So what is it?"

"Well." Cloud felt his throat close and his heart beat faster. He didn't realize that his leg was fidgeting violently until he saw Vincent growing impatient. And he didn't even now how he could tell, it was Vincent after all. But he needed to tell him or someone anyway, and he trusted Vincent, he was like his brother.

Cloud cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell her."

There was silence.

"I…I…I want to tell her. I need to."

"Good." Vincent said and Cloud looked at him. "She might have waited. But people can move on. They can only wait so long. Do you understand?"

"I do. But, I just. I was. I don't know. But I do now."

"Was that all?"

"I don't know…I'm very sure, but I'm very confused too."

"Cloud…listen…You've know her more than anyone else. You've been through many things…You are a couple. You've been. But neither of you seem to believe it needs to be clarified. And that is where you are both wrong. You can not go on like this. One of you will eventually get tired of it all. Do you understand?"

Cloud nodded.

"And you might want to choose someone more appropriate to talk to about things like this." Vincent said.

"Why? I think you helped out more than I thought you would." Cloud stopped fidgeting. He knew what he had to do.

"…"

"You did."

"Since you called me three days ago, I'd been thinking about what I should tell you."

"Well, you settled more in three days than I have in my life."

"So you're sure?"

"Yes." Cloud said and he really did mean it. "I'm very sure."

"I'm your witness. If you don't tell her, I'll be there to remind you."

"Yeah, I think that's what I need, to be a little under pressure." So there. There would not be a way for him to back down anymore. How many times had he tried to bring the subject up? He couldn't remember, but he was sure he'd tried, and failed at it too. He wondered what would have happed if he'd told her when she asked him, that time when he was halfway asleep. It seemed like such a long time ago. She'd tried. It was his turn now, to actually voice it.

They talked a while longer then went back to the bar. Tifa wasn't in sight and Yuffie was in charge of it all. Everything seemed okay, but Cloud wanted to know where Tifa was. He checked in the kitchen, but she wasn't there.

"You can stop looking for her Spikes." Yuffie was leaning against the frame of the kitchen door. "She went out. And I would of too, if you and Mr. Valentine weren't chatting your lives away." Cloud said nothing. "Do I need to spell it out? She went o-u-t. She can do that. She's an independent woman!" She threw her fist in the air. Cloud said nothing. "Seriously, you knew it would happen if you didn't hurry. C'mon you know it pretty darn well."

"With Reno."

"Ding, ding! We have a winner." Yuffie walked over to him and patted his shoulder. "You know, he really is a nice guy. Really fun to talk with. I bet if I were older I'd be the one going out with him. But then again, Reno doesn't seem to be the guy to care about age, unless that would make him a pedophiliac, and I'm pretty sure he's not…Wait. I'm not helping am I?"

Cloud said nothing.

"Anyway, Tifa said not to wait for her. She said you were pretty tired and you needed your sleep. I'll help you until the bar closes and then I'll be on my way, otherwise Tifa won't pay me. Hey look at it in the bright side…you just have to find one is all."

"Yuffie," Cloud said. "That's enough."

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

It was one. The bar was closed. Denzel and Marlene were sleeping. The dirty dishes were done. Cloud was tossing in bed. Tifa was not back. He lay in bed now, looking at the ceiling of his room. Things were not well. He wanted to go find her, make sure she was okay. But Tifa could defend herself. But they'd made that promise; he'd be there to help her when she needed. Her hero.

He felt empty and useless. He couldn't sleep. He'd already tried. He went downstairs to watch TV until she came back. He turned the screen on and changed it to one of the channels he usually watched whenever he had time. He stared at the screen tapping his fingers against the couch. He saw a man walking away, a woman with a gun, she was shooting now, she'd missed on purpose, and she collapsed on the ground. The man was gone. And Cloud couldn't help but empathize with the woman, feeling miserable.

He heard the door open. He got up and rushed to the door and there was Tifa.

"I told you not to wait. You need to sleep." She said.

"I know, but, I couldn't." And he realized then how she'd felt every time he told her not to wait for him. He couldn't see her face, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't. It was shadowy.

After a while she said. "Is the TV on?"

"Yeah."

She walked to the couch and sat down.

How was he supposed to take this? Was he supposed to just pretend nothing happened? Was he supposed to get upset? Maybe it was okay for him to say nothing. Or maybe it was not. Maybe it was better for him to say something. Not something that would make him sound angry. But surely something.

He sat besides her. "Did you have fun?"

"Not really. We went to a casino, people fight a lot there." She yawned. "Reno won quite a bit though." She yawned again.

"Are you tired?" Cloud said, and seeing here there, like she was, he felt fine again and wasn't upset anymore.

"A little."

They watched the TV for a while. By the time the episode was finished, Tifa was leaning on Cloud's shoulder and he had his head resting over hers. He felt that everything was wonderfully okay. He looked at Tifa and she blinked, still looking at the TV. The colors from the screen jumped and danced on her ivory skin. Cloud felt his heart beating faster and faster and her warm, steady breath against his skin. He leaned where he could see her closer, beautiful as she was. But what happened next, he wasn't expecting. She had her eyes closed and Cloud leaned in and kissed her.

She stirred and moved away from his shoulder, Cloud shifted back. She was rubbing her left eye with the back of her hand. Cloud felt his heart pounding boiling iron through his body. His face was red. Tifa was looking at him. Then he realized she had been asleep when he kissed her, well, it was more of a peck; but only because she had moved. But what was he supposed to do now?

She got up from the couch and said. "I better go to sleep. I'm so tired I'm imag—Anyway. Goodnight Cloud. Thanks for waiting for me." Then she yawned again and stretched her neck as she went upstairs. He saw her shadow. She had her hands on her temples and she was shaking her head a little. Then she was gone.

He stayed sitting on the couch, realizing what he'd done. He tried to take things seriously, to find a way to tell her now, but he kept going back to that moment, probably less than a second, and he couldn't think anymore. Maybe he should have told her then, but he figured it wasn't romantic enough and she really hadn't realized anyway. She deserved a bit more than that, especially after how long she'd waited. Then, he lost his mind again to that fraction of a second. And he was smiling. "I'm going to tell her I love her."

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

(Clears throat.) So, did you expect it or not? I won't say much on this one other than; I really hope you liked it. If you have questions or something, you can leave a review or message me if you'd like. I'll either slowly answer them on the notes after the story or message you back. Of course, some things might have to wait until the very end of the story, because _**this is not the end, **_in case you are wondering. And yes, this is the longest chapter!

**Oh, yeah. Here is a little contest; what do all the titles have in common? Send me a message, not a review, and you'll get a reward of some sort, maybe a request, maybe another CloTi, maybe your name in italics and bold. C'mon, you know you want to do it.**

**Dedications:** _Kohryu, AmazonTurk, Toons, RikkuMcClowFox, sazmullium, PouringCutie, Mandylion_. Thanks for reviewing. And _sazmullium_, thanks for adding me to your favorites list.

And _if you have added Dirty Dishes to your favorite stories_, I've written a little something for you. I've posted it a while back, but in case you didn't catch it, well, you know now, you can find it on my profile. There's also a poll on my profile, (I'm guessing there will usually be.) So, I'd like to see what you think.

Guess what? I'm loving my PS2! I think I'm finally getting the hang of the controllers. : D I actually won first place on a racing game! Oh, its' just so much fun. Yeah, and all you other experts are probably laughing at me. But, hey, you have to start somewhere.

_**Thanks for reading, don't forget to review, you make me smile every time you review. Okay then, until later!**_


	7. Under Construction

**Disclaimer: **Thank you for visiting FanFiction. With that known, Final Fantasy VII belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and _SquareEnix_. Thanks for giving us something to obsess over… ;)

I'm giving an early apology for misspellings and typos; remember, I have no time to proofread.

Thanks for clicking on the Dirty Dishes link, currently way _over 3,000 hits_. Good job guys and gals! _You're such awesome readers_. Not only did you click on the link so much, on the last chapter I asked for more reviews, and you actually listened, gave lots of good reviews. **YOU ARE GRAND**!

Oh, and say welcome to time change in this one.

And of course, don't forget to…

_**REVIEW! Let's break the record for reviews given for one chapter, 'kay?**_

I have some more to say, but first…On with the story!

**IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI**

"No."

"Cloud, the guy is fixing to kill himself."

"I said no, Reno." Cloud said looking at some papers sprawled over his desk.

"Aren't you supposed to be a hero? Not much of one the way you're acting."

"Look, I have something to do tonight." Cloud peered over to the clock. He was running late.

"Yeah, and so does this guy. And you know what he'll do, he'll pull a trigger. Nice, isn't it."

"I don't think the guy will kill himself." Cloud placed the cell phone between his shoulder and cheek trying to balance it as he organized his delivery forms.

"Hey, you're not the one who has stopped him before. I have. So, just do it." Reno was growing impatient.

"I'll call you back." Cloud said flipping the phone shut before he heard anything more from Reno.

He grabbed the forms of today's deliveries and walked out to the bar where Tifa was serving some customers. He waited until she was finished and then they walked away from the crowd. Cloud sighed and scratched the back of his neck before speaking. She reached out and grabbed his hand. This was difficult. "Tifa, I. I don't want to do this to you, but can we cancel our plans for tonight."

"Is something wrong?" She said worried.

"No. Well, Reno just called. And he said that this guy just drowned himself in alcohol and is about to drive off to some town to go see someone. Anyway, supposedly this guy's pretty desperate."

She was silent.

"I promise I'll make it up to you." He said quickly. "I'll hurry and see if we can make it still."

"That's fine." She said, and Cloud didn't like the way she looked, kind of sad. "Just make sure the guy doesn't do something crazy, like trying to kill himself."

"How did you guess?"

"What?" She said.

"Nevermind…I'll hurry okay. Yeah, so I won't be in for lunch." He started turning away and felt Tifa's grip lessen on his hand. He bit his bottom lip for a second then gathered up his courage and touched his lips to her cheek. His heart was pumping again. He walked out, pretending that he'd committed something that was ordinary, and heard as Tifa told him to take care, her voice a bit confused. He let Fenrir warm up and drove slowly as he left the Seventh Heaven. As soon as he had reached a road, he sped up. He wanted to hurry. He didn't want to cancel his plans. And he wanted his heart to stop beating so fast. It'd been hard enough to ask her to come with him for dinner and now he did this. He remembered everything…

… "Tifa?" Cloud said standing outside of her door.

"Yes." She said from inside.

"May I come in for a second?" He said very quickly. His heart was pounding in his chest and it was amazing how he could even hear his heartbeat.

"Uh, just a minute." She said. And after a while she said, "Okay, you can come in."

Cloud gave what seemed to be a final breath and walked in slowly. He stood inside and closed the door leaving about an inch of an opening. She walked over to him and smiled. She looked beautiful today, with the light coming in from the window of her room. Her dark hair appeared to be framed by golden light and her skin looked soft and fresh. Her eyes were so bright and her smile made him fluttery….And he wasn't saying much. He looked at her and smiled. It was easy to smile when she was smiling.

"I need to…talk to you."

"Sure." She said. She grabbed one of his hands and led him to a corner of her bed. They sat down across from each other. But Cloud hadn't released her hand. She looked at his hand for a second, and then turned to him. Cloud looked at her now, feeling his stomach full of little internal butterflies, he felt his collar hot, and he saw Tifa's cheeks grow a bit red. He wondered if he looked the same…

…He almost missed the traffic light. He stopped just in time, as soon as he did, the light switched from orange, or yellow, or whatever color that was supposed to be, maybe macaroni and cheese, to red. He tried to keep his mind in alert as he crossed the most difficult parts of the city. It was very busy now. But as soon as he had entered the less used roads, his guard was down again…

…"Tifa." Then he abruptly stopped. He heaved a little. This shouldn't be so difficult, he thought.

"Cloud." Tifa said. Her voice was very sweet and Cloud was unable to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Tifa. I." His words were choppy and he stuttered. "Would, you. Like. To, go. Out. For dinner, or something?"…

…There was one of the houses. It was a good thing that at least one of his deliveries wasn't so far away. He pulled in into driveway and turned Fenrir off. The house was very well kept, and the lawn was very clean and recently mowed. He knocked on the door and a woman came out with a box and the exact address. She went rambling on how the package was to be treated very carefully. Cloud was able to leave only after assuring her that it would be perfectly fine.

It was a small box. He easily secured it to Fenrir and continued on his journey…

…"Of course!" She said very exited and she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Cloud looked at her and her eyes were brighter than before, he'd be willing to bet more beautiful than stars, and she was smiling so perfectly. Cloud smiled at her again, unwillingly, or not.

They looked at each other soaking in the moment.

Cloud felt brave enough to…

…And then the phone rang. Cloud slowed down and answered. It was Reno. "Look," Cloud said. "I have other deliveries to make first. These people have asked me to do these jobs with over a week advance."

"What is that I hear? Is that a gun going off?"

"No Reno. It'll have to wait until I finish the jobs I've already been paid to do."

"Fine, Spikes. Call me when you're finished." Then Reno hung up.

Cloud heaved and his thoughts covered him again…

… From the open window a breeze came in and blew a strand of her dark hair against his skin. She took it away from his cheek, her warm fingertips leaving a train on his skin as she placed it behind her ear. He reached out his hand and helped her with another loose strand. He touched her cheek and his heart was racing. He saw her eyes close and felt as his eyelids involuntarily did the same. He leaned in and he could feel her warm breath against his face…

…Someone honked. He looked around and found a woman trying to pass him. He rolled his eyes in annoyance. She wasn't supposed to pass him in that lane, especially with all the curves. He got out of the highway and waited for the woman to cross. He cleaned his goggles from a bit of dust.

He looked at what time it was and smiled realizing that he might just make it. But it seemed too early to think of that. He hadn't even delivered the small box yet. He thought about it for a minute and realized that he had about ten or fifteen minutes before reaching his destination.

He made sure that it was still intact and after doing so took the same path. He concentrated on not missing the house. The woman had said a light gray house. That wasn't of very much help. Everything looked like that already. He was frustrated. Sometimes he just really wanted to quit his job. Times whenever people were very explicit describing the house. 'It's this color, with a mailbox, with a window and a door." People could be very intelligent sometimes.

After he had reached the colony in which the house was found, he had to slow down. He said the numbers of the houses to himself as he searched for number 561. "Let's see. 555, 556, 558, wait what? Yeah. 558, 559, 561…61? Yeah. 561. Okay I'm here."

He stepped to the door and an older man greeted him at the door. The elder was very glad to see Cloud. "Is this the package from my daughter?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem. Could you sign here please?"

"Of course." The old man wrote his name with very shaky cursive.

"Have a good day."

"Yes, you too."

And Cloud took to the road again to continue his work. He thought about his next delivery, it could take a while longer. He tried to hurry; he really didn't want to let Tifa down tonight. It was hard to get reservations for that restaurant too. They'd been lucky to have had someone else cancel. After he and Tifa had agreed to go eat out, he hadn't been able to spend much time with her and that bothered him…

…The wind was blowing steadily in through the window. Cloud felt as Tifa's hair flew again and caressed his skin. He was so close to her know and his heart was uncontrollable.

"Tifa!"

Cloud dropped his hand to the bed and Tifa stood up very quickly. Denzel and Marlene came in the room in less than a second. They must have been back from school. He didn't know whether to be angered, or to laugh. He still loved them, all of them.

"Guess what?" Denzel said very exited. Marlene had her hands behind her back and was rocking back and forth.

"What is it?" Tifa asked.

"I got a trophy for the science fair!"

"That's great Denzel!"

"Well, not so great. It's a second place trophy. But how was I supposed to know that the other guy's dad was a renowned physicist. Anyway, I even got a price."

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

"I get to go on a one-week trip to this science camp thing. The teacher said it was just a fancy way of saying I get a vacation."

"Tell them what else Denzel!" Marlene said just as exited.

"I get to take a friend with me! And I chose Marlene. The other guy gets to take three people, but I don't think he even has that many friends."

"And they won't even make us do extra homework," Marlene said. "That's what the teacher said. She said that it was basically a school function and that we were smart enough that it wouldn't hurt if we missed a week."

"Isn't it great?" Denzel said.

"Absolutely!" Tifa said hugging him very tightly. Cloud walked up to him and gave him a hug afterwards. Nope, definitely couldn't be angry at him, or them….

…The sun was setting. He had finished all his deliveries. Cloud had two hours. Could he make it with two hours? He hated himself for taking his phone and dialing Reno's number. He was definitely going to get something out of this, and Reno would be the one to pay. Surely, he'd heard of equivalent exchange. And Cloud knew exactly what he wanted, and laughed, realizing how manipulative he was acting.

"Reno."

"So are you finally done? This guy's wrecked hell already."

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Fine. Listen, this is what I need you to do. This guy has a girl up in the other side of town. I need you to go and fetch her. Find a way to get her up here—"

"Reno, you could do that." Cloud said very annoyed.

"Uh, no I couldn't. If I went to try and get her to come, I'll end up with my eyes shredded out. She's blaming me for their trouble. Could you believe she thinks I am a bad influence?" Reno said sounding sarcastically offended.

"How dare she." Cloud said monotonously.

"Look spikes, I don't need you to pull jokes off. You're not the type, okay? Hey! Leave that alone. No! Don't do that. Don't be stupid. Yeah, she's coming."

"What?"

"I'm talking to the martyr. Just do it Cloud…please."

"Fine. I'll go. But I'm going to need more than pay for this."

"Are you trying to make a deal?" Reno said with his best business voice.

"Maybe."

"I see…I guess I'll have to wait until I have the slipknot around my neck."

"Maybe." Cloud said.

"I'll give it a try. The lady you're going to be looking for lives on Vine Street, a place called 'Escape to Hell.' You'll be looking for Julianne, she'll tell you where to go after that…"

… "Do you have everything you need?" Tifa said one last time to Denzel and Marlene as they prepared to depart.

"Yes, Tifa."

"Good. Now you take care."

"We will." Marlene said.

They climbed on the school bus and took their seats. They waved to them from the window.

"Stay out of trouble." Cloud said.

They waited until the bus left. Cloud was very glad that the kids were on a field trip, he'd seen how bored they looked sometimes just playing around at home. At first he didn't expect that many people to be going. But the schools had gathered enough funding through grants to take at least twenty of them. He wondered that maybe they were trying to persuade them to continue a career that would help them develop a different source of energy; otherwise, he didn't see why they had given such an interest to this 'young' scientific minds.

He and Tifa walked back home. Now that they were four people at home, he couldn't but think maybe having a car around wouldn't be a bad idea. Then, Cloud wondered if it would be okay to hold her hand. He felt like a teenager, not exactly fitting to his age. Before he thought about it very much, before he talked himself out of it, he reached for her hand. However, he found himself blushing furiously as she took his instead and smiled at him…

…He found the place very easily. Cloud couldn't help but wonder if he got himself into more trouble than he could afford. But, how difficult would it be to convince Julianne that someone needed to see her and he was sent to pick her up? He figured that there would be no other way of knowing than giving it a try. He wasn't shocked to find that the place was a bar. Of course, it was nothing like Tifa's bar. No children should ever step there to begin. And he wasn't at all shocked to see what she looked liked once he found her.

Cloud talked to the woman for over thirty minutes and he was growing desperate. He was running low on time and would really prefer to be out of that bar anyway.

"Look babe, I know exactly what Reno's trying to do. Ever heard that making-up is the best thing after a break up? That son-of-a-three-horned-she-goat. Reno thinks he can go running around with my babe all over those other bars making him buy all the drinks. And then he brings back my William all drunk and smelling of corner lady. I said no already. I am not going to go see him. Just wait 'till I get my hands on Reno."

"So this is all about your romantic issues?" Cloud said.

"Call it what you want."

"I don't have time for this." He was very annoyed now. "I have better things to do. I should be with Tifa."

"Tifa?" Julianne asked with a risen eyebrow.

"She's just a girl I'd finally asked out and now I'm stuck here instead of with her." Cloud started walking out of the door. He was saying more than he should. "Goodbye." He said simply.

"Wait. I wanna go."

"What!" Cloud said gritting his teeth.

"I want to go see him. You just—" She covered her face with her hand. "He used to love me so much. I'd seen how promiscuous he was, but I wanted to believe he was just mine. One day he asked me out and a girl kept him away from me. I feel terrible keeping you away from your girl…Please, take me to him."

This was interesting. But Cloud didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get home. "Hurry then." He said and they both left very quickly. Cloud sped through the streets and Julianne kept pointing on the direction he had to take. Cloud looked at the streets and now he was pretty sure where he was going. He was going to that red-head's store. They got there faster than he had expected. She jumped off of the bike and rushed to the door. Then, she turned on her heal.

"Wait, we need to pay you don't we?"

"Yeah, I'll come back later. I'm in a hurry."

"Thanks, hun." She said smiling. "I guess sometimes lives are stuck, I guess you can say, 'under construction' for a long time. We've been working on this for over two years, and we still can't figure it out. Do me a favor won't you? Go back to your girl and don't let things stay under construction for too long." She waved and stepped into the shop.

He didn't have to be told. He was glad that maybe these two could work things out again. But he'd still find a way to make Reno pay sooner or later. He rushed to the Seventh Heaven. His life might be under construction again, and even if he had already missed one of the deadlines, he was going to give it all he had to make up for it. All he knew at the moment, was that right now, all he had to do was be with Tifa.

**IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI**

Okay guys, that's yet another chapter. I'm not sure that I knew what I was doing really. I think I did, but not quite. But pretty sure…Neh, I'm confused now.

Now to business, I received a review that I'd like to explain to everyone, just in case someone else had the same thought. My reviewer was disappointed in Cloud's and Tifa's relationship and how it did not progress much. I guess I'm either not the type to like things rushed, or just think differently of a relationship. This is my defense:

First of all, if you notice, the amount of how much they touch each other changes depending on the chapter. Take the first two chapters for example, in the beginning they didn't touch, and in the second, although they were sleeping in the same bed, they were still not touching; they were closer, but not touching yet. That's a pretty big comparison to them sitting on the couch together and practically using each other as a pillow, like on the previous chapter, and holding hands like in this chapter.

Secondly, there is a progression in Cloud that shows how he feels. A very easy way to identify this is his lack of finishing the word love, towards the beginning of the story; accepting how he feels, but rephrasing the sentence so he wouldn't use the word love ("he really did.") later on. And to finish, to plain out completing the sentence!

And Lastly, Vincent's wise words. "You are a couple." I thought that was pretty expository….

…But who knows…

One more thing, I have a confession: I don't worry much about writing in character, but at the same time I do. Does that make sense? Anyway, I'm always worried that I've completely messed a character up or something…I think this chapter was probably one of those cases that I worried more over. I don't know anymore.

**Anyway, thanks to:** _AmazonTurk, __Kohryu, __Roxy200620, __Mandylion, __PoutingCutie, __CaeliaDanan, __Chaotic Symphony__, Simple, PheonixRaindrops, __macalaniaprincess, __Kemeto No Repato, __RikkuMcClowFox, __C2-Chikaru_Thanks for reviewing, and I'm sorry if I didn't get to message back on your review. Also, thanks to anyone that I might have forgotten to name for supporting the story.

**Remember the contest to find what all the titles basically have in common is still open. Remember to use a message.**

**Okay, **_**thanks for reading! Rember to review, NMM loves reviews! And she loves people who review!**_


	8. In The End

**Disclaimer: **Insert some sort of 'smart' comment here. Final Fantasy VII belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and _SquareEnix_. Oh, what our lives would be without the little things… :)

Again, early apology for typos and grammar and spelling errors. No time to proofread.

Dirty Dishes has over 4,000 hits. Oh, isn't that awesome? Nope, you are awesome! Because you're the ones that click on the link…Oh if only I had more reviews. (cough, cough)

Yeah, so don't forget to…

_**REVIEW! **_

_**I was sad. We didn't break the record for reviews in one chapter... How about one more try?**_

Not much to say except that there are a few surprises for you at the end…On with the story!

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

Cloud had a headache. But he wasn't going to let that spoil anything. He'd made it with a few minutes to spare. Surely things would be okay. He parked Fenrir in the garage taking little notice of the new vehicle taking up most of the space; he saw only a black shiny blob. The house was quiet, even the bar area. He felt a pang across his temples and rubbed it away walking around trying to find Tifa.

The bar was empty. She was sitting on a stool with his back towards him. He called her name. She turned around and smiled brightly. Cloud smiled, but very soon saw that she held one of her hands awkwardly. He walked to her and took it.

"What happened?" He said looking at the purple bruises and dried blood on her knuckles.

"Well, I guess somethings can't be prevented in a bar. A fight broke out and I had to stop it before someone got hurt. I didn't even remember to put on my gloves…How was I supposed to know the guy had a steel plate on his head." She gave a silly laugh. Cloud couldn't help but just give much of the same laughter.

"Why haven't you cleaned it up yet?" He said standing up and walking for the first aid kit. She didn't say anything. Cloud walked back and took Tifa's hand again.

"You don't have to clean it up. I can do it." She said.

"Just let me." He responded looking up and seeing as she nodded. "If I can't do anything for you, I'm pretty sure that I can at least do this."

"But you do a lot of things for us."

"Maybe. But I very seldom have time to just do it for you."

Then he went to work trying to be the best medic he could. There might have been a simpler way, but this was more personal. After a minute or so, Cloud was finished. He looked up to Tifa who was smiling beautifully. He turned red and gave a smile too. Her gaze had been on him for the longest time. The room was silent, Cloud heard himself swallow nervously.

His cellphone rang. He looked in his pockets until he found it. "Hello." There was no answer from the other side of the line. "Hello" Cloud repeated. He shrugged his shoulders at Tifa and was just about to hang up when someone answered.

"Is this Cloud."

"Yes, it is." He answered. Whoever was on the other line was very jumpy and drunk. "Is there something I could do for you?"

"You 'ready huv."

"Excuse me?" Cloud said surprised.

"Thunks fo bringin' my gurlfrend over to me."

"Oh. It's you."

"Yeah. It's me. Would it muk 'ny diff'rence if I tol' you I wus surry. Ve'y, ve'y surry."

Cloud looked at Tifa for a second.

"Ve'y, ve'y, ve'y surry."

He still didn't answer. He didn't want to forgive him, he knew he had to. But no matter how much someone apologized, or no matter how often you said you accepted someone's apology, there would always be something there. He knew that. It was hard for anyone to forget. They made themselves believe that there was nothing left, but hatred and resentment were two things that were almost, if not impossible to get rid of. But it helped to apologize, and accept apologies. That was the only way to maintain a balance, not only in the world, but in oneself too.

"Luk." And the red-haired sniffled. "I wus jelos of you an' you purdy gurl. 'Cause you luk so happey an' me an my gurl we're like you an' you gurl but we gut mad." There was some more sniffling. And Cloud's eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't min to git you invulved in our problems. Plis. I'm surry." Cloud felt his throat thicken. He understood how being in love was difficult.

"It's okay." Cloud finally said.

"Really." Came the response from the other line.

"Yeah." And Cloud couldn't help but think that after all, somethings could be forgotten.

"Blon—I min, Cloud. Thunk you."

"No problem." Cloud said and hung up. Tifa looked at him. She'd been standing by on the conversation. He smiled at her. "A new friend, I guess. I know he's not an enemy…" Then he'd remembered why he'd rushed to the house. "Are we going out, or not?"

"Oh, no." Tifa said surprised. "I forgot to tell you, I called in and cancelled the reservation we had. I expected you to call me if you were going to be here on time like you usually do, and you didn't call."

Cloud felt a pang cross his temples again. He shut his eyes tightly as the pain came and left, he held his head for a second. "Yeah, I forgot."

"Are you okay?" Tifa said checking his temperature. And at the mere touch of her hands, Cloud felt wonderfully okay.

"I'm fine. I just had a lot of stress today…" He didn't want to ruin a night they had promised to spend together.

"Cloud."

"Hm?"

"Let's go out."

"Where to?" He said.

"Anywhere."

She took his hand and pulled him out of his seat. They climbed on Fenrir and left the house as they drove aimlessly. She held onto him tightly as they traveled and Cloud felt that no matter how bad of a day he'd had, he'd already had enough good to make up for it. He gave Tifa a quick glance and turned around again. He couldn't believe how well things were going for him. He had wanted for this to happen more than anything else for more than he could remember. It didn't matter to him that it had to be held back for years. All he knew was that it was happening now. And no one could stop it. He hadn't ever been able to stop it. He knew Tifa hadn't either. Whether it was work of destiny or not, he didn't care because either way he loved her and she loved him.

After a while they stopped at a restaurant that not many visited, which was a real shame since the food was very good. They sat across from each other and pretended that they were in the fancy restaurant that they had cancelled the reservations for. They talked for the longest time about things that both had forgotten about. Eventually, a lady came and informed them that they were going to close pretty soon. Cloud and Tifa decided to leave then and continued their aimless roaming.

"I'm stuffed." Cloud said mounting Fenrir.

"Aren't you glad we came here instead?" Tifa said mounting and taking a hold of Cloud's torso.

"Yeah. I bet that restaurant we cancelled gave portions for mice that tasted like poison."

Tifa giggled. "Don't exaggerate."

"Where are we going now?"

"You know, we forgot dessert. We need to go get some."

"Like where?"

"I don't know a bakery or something."

"Okay, hold on."

They traveled slowly, trying to take as much time as they could. The sky was clear above them, so there was no worry of being stuck in the rain. When they came to a bakery, Tifa jumped down and asked Cloud to wait for a minute. She entered the store and Cloud looked around the street. There was a florist shop. He looked at the bakery again and saw as Tifa looked around at the bread, and muffins, and cakes. He dismounted and rushed to the florist.

"We're closed." The florist said.

"Could I just have a few roses? Please." The man looked at him and his face must have been desperate because the man without hesitation said he would.

"What color?"

"Uh. Red."

"I'm not sure if we have any more red. Let me check." He went behind to where the flowers were and called out what he had. "Let's see, we have daisies. No, but you don't want any of those. Oh, here are the roses. There's white and pink and yellow. Oh, and here are some jade ones too."

"Do you have red?" Cloud said worrying.

"I have…here's one, two, and here's three. That's all I have."

"That's all I need."

The man wrapped them up for him and Cloud paid him twice as much since he'd made him rush. Then he ran back to his bike and hid the flowers just in time. Tifa opened the door of the bakery and smiled as she took her place. Cloud sighed and they drove off again. They took a road that let them out of town and found a spot in the middle of nowhere were the stars shone beautifully. They sat on the grass and ate some chocolate and strawberry cakes that Tifa had bought. After a few minutes, they laid down on the ground and gazed up at the stars.

"Sometimes I feel so small and lonely when I look at the stars." Tifa said.

"Do you right now?" Cloud asked.

"No. I never feel lonely when you're around."

After while, they were resting on each other. Cloud had become Tifa's pillow as they lay hugging. It was getting chilly and they had forgotten to bring any jackets. It was getting very late too. Cloud had turned off his cellphone, but he guessed that it was easily two in the morning. The time to go home was well overdue and Cloud had still one thing left in his mind.

He looked at Tifa's porcelain face as it rested on his arm. He needed to know, not just by actions, but also by her words.

"Tifa." He finally said and his voice trembled a little.

"Hm?"

"Are we…a…couple?" He looked at the stars trying to ignore the fact that he was turning very red.

"I don't know." She said, and Cloud didn't turn to see her smile curiously and blush. "Are we?"

"I'd…love to. Can we?"

"I'd love that." She said. They sat up and stared at each other for the longest time. "Look, a shooting star!" Tifa said suddenly pointing at the sky. Cloud turned quickly and saw as the light flash and fade into nothing. He closed his eyes and made a wish. Tifa sneezed.

"It's getting cold. We better get going."

He helped her up and they walked towards Fenrir, hand in hand. Cloud remembered that he'd bought her roses and let her hand go as he jogged to the bike to uncover the flowers. Tifa arrived just when Cloud took the small bouquet from one of the many compartments.

"These are for you." He said as he handed them to her.

She smiled brightly and held the bouquet close to her chest. "Cloud this has been a really great night. And I really love roses." She said caressing her face with the soft petals of the flowers and smelling their sweet scent.

Cloud nodded and smiled widely. "I like roses too." He said nervously as his collar grew hot. "But. I. love you." He finished quietly.

Tifa remained still for a second, as if she hadn't quite understood what he'd said. His heart was pounding inside his chest and he was sure it would break through his flesh and bones if it didn't stop beating so hard. And his temples weren't aching with pain anymore, but he could hear his heartbeat very clearly. He cleared his throat and repeated himself clearly.

"Tifa I love you."

She didn't answer and Cloud couldn't help but look down awkwardly. It felt like hours before she spoke his name. He looked up and Tifa pressed her lips against his. It was so sudden that Cloud's eyes remained open and his body was rigid from the surprise. She pulled back quickly as the soft 'mua' sound left their lips. "I love you too Cloud."

She hugged him as he remained struck. He blinked once, twice and looked at Tifa as she pulled away from the embrace. He didn't know what drove him to do so, but he brought her to him again and kissed her. But it wasn't the two pecks they'd exchanged before. It was the sort of kiss that came only from people that were truly in love, the happily-ever-after kind, the kind that seems to never end.

Tifa's arms wrapped behind Cloud's shoulders and the roses she held tickled his ear. He laughed as he finally released her. They smiled at each other and kissed again, as if to make sure it was true. Suddenly Cloud thought of how long one was supposed to wait before proposing. But he forgot as his mind drowned in ecstasy and his heart melted in his chest as they kissed again.

He knew everything would be wonderful because, in the end, his wish was to share his life with Tifa.

**XOXOXOXOX F I N XOXOXOXOXOX**

**Reader:** What! Is that it!

**NMM:** …well, yes. I suppose. I'm fixing to concentrate on a Cowboy Bebop story.

**Reader:** No! It can't be! I need more Cloti! (Glares) You're evil.

**NMM:** Nah…okay maybe a little…Now on to other business, **the answer for the title contest is that the titles are all basically **_**prepositional phrases.**_ Not as hard as you though, is it?

**Reader**: Evil.

**NMM**: And thanks to all of you who have reviewed: _AmazonTurk, Kohryu, Kotono 116, Mandylion, RikkuMcClowFox, Chaotic Symphony, ClotiNotCleris,_ and_ Hikari. _

I appreciate all the reviews you have given me. They encourage me to keep writing. For example, if you've been following the story, you know I was going to shorten it, well, I actually ended expanding it. See, reviews encourage writing because authors can get a better perception of what readers like or dislike.

I guess that's all, I have to tell you that I really enjoyed doing this and well, thanks for all the support.

**NOTICE: Epilogue is posted, "In the end, there's more to it than that." **

_**Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. See you later, well, maybe…**_


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